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They had been barred from serving in the denomination for 20 years.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports it was a day of mixed feelings for the "Bay Area Seven", who saw the event as an act of reconciliation with the church that once shunned them.
The move comes almost a year after the national assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to allow gay men and women, with partners, to serve as clergy members, making it the latest Protestant church to allow such ordinations.
Gay men and women were once allowed to become pastors but had to take a vow of celibacy, a move that was defied by two San Francisco churches in 1990 when they ordained a gay man and a lesbian couple. The churches were thrown out of the denomination, but continued to ordain pastors.
One of the congregations has now voted to return to the national Lutheran church.
